Whangapoua Wind Stats

This picture shows how often and how strongly the wind blows from different directions over a normal November. The largest spokes point in the directions the wind most commonly blows from and the shade of blue indicates the strength, with dark blue strongest. It is based on 3347 NWW3 forecasts of wind since since 2006, at 3hr intervals, for the closest NWW3 model node to Whangapoua, located 26 km away (16 miles). There are not enough recording stations world wide to use actual wind data. Invevitably some coastal places have very localized wind effects that would not be predicted by NWW3. According to the model, the dominant wind at Whangapoua blows from the ENE. If the rose diagram shows a close to circular outline, it means there is no strong bias in wind direction at Whangapoua. On the other hand, dominant spokes illustrate favoured directions, and the more the darkest shade of blue, the stronger the wind. Spokes point in the direction the wind blows from. During a typical November, the model suggests that winds are light enough for the sea to be glassy (the lightest shade of blue) about 8% of the time (2 days each November) and blows offshore 29% of the time (0 days in an average November). Over an average November wind stronger than >40kph (25mph) was forecast for only a single days at Whangapoua

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